Category — Concerts

If you haven’t checked out Drum Channel do yourself a favor and visit their site. It has comprehensive interviews, performance footage and updates about everything drumming related.

On October 18th at 7:30PM EST/4:30PM PST, Drum Channel will be streaming the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The concert will feature Neil Peart, Chad Smith, John Blackwell, Terry Bozzio, Tommy Igoe, Efrain Toro, Nick Rich plus special guests.

All of these amazing drummers will be paying tribute to Buddy Rich. However, they will also be performing tracks from their respective bands, with Neil Peart playing Rush’s “YYZ” and Chad Smith performing the Red Hot Chili Peppers hit “Dani California”.

It’s hard to believe that some of these drummers learned so much and got so far from learning on marching drums in their youth, particularly John Blackwell. These guys have years of high-profile touring under their belts too though. This is a drumming event you shouldn’t miss and its free!

Oasis have announced a chunk of arena shows in major US cities for most of December. After a crazy fan attacked Noel Gallagher in Toronto, earlier this month, the band canceled a number of shows.

The tour also sports opener Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, who will play through the whole tour which starts in Oakland, CA on December 3rd and ends on December 20th in Fairfax, VA.

Although Oasis hasn’t really had too high of a profile in America since the mid 90’s, the band has remained huge in it’s native UK. A lot of news surrounding Noel Gallagher has brought them into the press more, and may even be helping to promote their new album. Also, while nothing complicated is ever played on their records drum-wise, Zak-Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) can teach you a thing or two about playing for the song. He also has really nice custom DW Drums with a custom British flag paint job.

Oasis Tour Dates:

12/3, Oakland, CA (Oracle Arena)
12/4, Los Angeles, CA (Staples Center)
12/6, Las Vegas, NV (The Pearl)
12/8, Denver, CO (Broomfield Events Center)
12/10, Minneapolis, MN (Target Center)
12/12, Chicago, IL (Allstate Arena)
12/13, Detroit, MI (Palace of Auburn Hills)
12/15, London, Ontario (John LaBatt Centre)
12/17, New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
12/19, Camden, NJ (Susquehanna Center)
12/20, Washington, DC (GMU Patriot Center)

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Mogwai has cancelled the rest of their North American tour dates after drummer Martin Bulloch’s pacemaker broke last Sunday following their final song at the All Tomorrows Parties Festival in New York. After a trip to the emergency room, Bulloch decided he must return home to Scotland immediately to see his cardiologist. Dates that have been cancelled include shows in Boston, Montreal, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Pontiac, MI (where?! yes, I am from California…). Those east of the Atlantic will not be affected by this news, as Mogwai plans to keep their dates in Europe and Japan beginning in October.

Remaining Tour Dates:
10-21 Edinburgh, Scotland - Corn Exchange
10-23 Manchester, England - Academy
10-24 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
10-27 Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Rockhal
10-28 Paris, France - Casino de Paris
10-29 Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
11-02 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
11-03 Lund, Sweden - Mejeriet
11-04 Stockholm, Sweden - Cirkus
11-06 Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
11-08 Hamburg, Germany - Grosse Freiheit
11-10 Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm
11-11 Dresden, Germany - Alter Schlachthof
11-12 Munich, Germany - Backstage-Werk
11-14 Vienna, Austria - Wuk
11-17 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri Son
11-18 Zurich, Switzerland - Rote Fabrik

On Mogwai’s official site Bulloch tries to explain the situation to disappointed North American fans (like me):

“I’m really bummed about having to go home,” Bulloch wrote, “but I can honestly say it would be almost impossible for me to carry on at this point as my pacemaker has broken skin and the surrounding area has become infected.” Ok, ok Martin! We get the point, and we forgive you. Even though we have to wait until next year for you guys to come back to America. We hope you get better soon.

The Smashing Pumpkins will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary with a tour of theaters around the country, where they will play “special set lists”. Billboard reports that “During multiple-night engagements, for which special ticket bundles will be available, the band promises to not repeat any song on the set lists. The first night of such runs is being dubbed “Black Sunshine,” while the second is called “White Crosses.”

So, yea…I don’t really get the reasons why the tours are named that, but Billy Corgan is pretty much insane now. Before the tour, the band will be playing Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert for the first time since 1999.

I’m not really too interested in the tour, because it’s not a true anniversary since the original members are nowhere to be found. Although if you’re a fan of Chamberlain’s drumming, and don’t mind Iha and D’Arcy being gone, its a good chance to see his drumming skills live.

I know that Chamberlain is a long-time Yamaha drums endorser, but I have seen some photo’s of him playing a pearl drum set. Not exactly sure why, but it is interesting to note. The bands tour dates are as follows…

Nov. 1: Cleveland (Palace Theatre)
Nov. 3-4: Toronto (Massey Hall)
Nov. 6-7: New York (United Palace Theatre)
Nov. 8: Atlantic City, N.J. (Borgata)
Nov. 11-12: Washington, D.C. (DAR Constitution Hall)
Nov. 14-15: Boston (Wang Center)
Nov. 18-19: Chicago (Chicago Theatre)
Nov. 21-22: Chicago (Auditorium Theatre)
Nov. 26: St. Louis (Fox Theatre)
Nov. 30: San Diego (RIMAC Arena)
Dec. 2-3: Los Angeles (Gibson Amphitheatre)

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This weekend the All Tomorrow’s Parties Fest begins and lasts until Sunday the 21st. The lineup is pretty outstanding and features, among other things, the first performance by My Bloody Valentine in the US in 16 years!

The full lineup can be viewed at the festival’s official site. A large number of great drummers will be at the festival as there are so many amazing bands playing. Among the band’s I’d love to see are…

OM, Polvo, Shellac, MBV, Low, Tortoise, Bardo Pond, The Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, Mogwai, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and Bob Mould.

It’s a shame ATP doesn’t get as much press as other festivals, but then again it is not really on the level of Coachella or others like it. All Tomorrow’s Parties is currently SOLD OUT, so if you really want to go and you didn’t get a ticket, either pawn your drum set off or check out eBay. Wish I was going…

This morning I came across a great article over at Wired.com about the current stage show on Nine Inch Nails latest tour. It is one of the most high-tech setups that has ever toured, features multiple moving “stealth screens” as well as interactive lights and video the band members can actually control on the fly.

“With the song “Only,” for instance, the front, convex screen starts out as solid static. On Reznor’s side of the display, a laser above him detects whenever he crosses a vertical plane paralleling the screen. On the floor, a piece of tape and two tiny LED lights let him know exactly where that plane is.

As Reznor intersects that plane with his hand or body, the laser tracks his X and Y coordinates. The “brain” box then tells the particles to spread out to a predetermined dispersal pattern. Reznor says: “Then it follows me around. If I leave the plane, it fills back in. If I push through, it comes back out.”

Proving that he is the ultimate professional once again, Josh Freese doesn’t just pound out beats on his DW drums, he is turning off and on a drum grid sequencer. “We recreated a grid drum sequencer,” he says. “[Drummer Josh Freese] is actually touching and turning them on and off. But he’s not really touching the screen. He’s crossing the same laser on the back screen, which gets calibrated at sound check.”

These are just a few aspects of the band’s current stage setup, the article is fairly long and well worth the read.

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Nick McBrain, the drummer of Iron Maiden, joined the stage with The Mystic Orchestra’s “Flashback-The Classic Rock Experience” in Florida on Sunday, August 31st. According to the official website, the band consists of 25 world-class musicians who perform a 3-hour show consisting of 30 of the best classic rock songs ever recorded. “Flashback” is a tour that “enhances the original songs by adding richer sounds, intelligent lighting, video animations and special effects.” Artists covered during the performances include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Video of McBrain’s appearance for Deep Purple’s song “Smoke On the Water” can be seen here.

According to one fan, “It was like going to the ultimate reunion tour of all time…I encourage any rock fan to definitely check this tour out.” Tickets range from $20-$170 bucks a pop. Remaining tour dates for “Flashback-The Classic Rock Experience” can be found here. Get ready to break out the bong…

Bumbershoot went down this past weekend in Seattle, WA and pitchforkmedia.com has some great photos and coverage up. They have some great shots of Stone Temple Pilots, T.I, Final Fantasy, Beck, Sons & Daughters and many more.

Also, I had planned on attending one of The Melvins shows at The Troubadour this past weekend, except the shows were canceled. No explanation has been given aside from the statement that the shows were canceled “due to illness.” I plan on going to one of the rescheduled dates and getting some video footage of Dale Crover and The Melvins awesome 2-in-1 kit up here.

Radiohead concluded the first leg of their current North American tour supporting “In Rainbows” last night in Santa Barbara.

The band’s set from the Santa Barbara Bowl is available in streaming form at radiohead.tv. Well worth checking out. Have a great labor day weekend!

The Outside Lands music festival took place this past weekend in San Francisco and while I was not present to review it PitchforkMedia was, of course. They have some great photo’s up of Radiohead with their high-tech LED light show, Beck, Wilco and Tom Petty, among others.

The festival boasted a pretty good lineup of major headline acts and smaller but well-known indie acts such as; Broken Social Scene, Drive-By Truckers, Andrew Bird, The Walkmen, Devandra Benhart and more.

Outside Lands Festival Pictures.